Published: Tuesday, January 26, 2010
IN OUR VIEW / FUNDING BASIC EDUCATION
Lay the groundwork now
This being a recession session, legislators in Olympia are focused on ways to spend less, not more.
That shouldn't stop them, however, from laying the foundation for smarter, fuller funding of basic education. Paying for that remains, regardless of economic conditions, the state's constitutional “paramount duty.” Implementing long-term solutions for education funding is exactly what lawmakers should be doing over the next couple of years, so when revenue eventually rebounds, a blueprint will be in place for spending it wisely.
That work can and should begin this morning, when the House Education Committee hears testimony on HB 2746, sponsored by Rep. Mike Hope, R-Lake Stevens. It launches a process for coming up with concrete ways to fully and fairly fund basic education statewide.
Hope has bipartisan co-sponsorship for the bill, as does Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, who has introduced a similar bill in his chamber (SB 6740).
The proposals build on the promising work of Lake Stevens School Board member David Iseminger, who drew up a detailed, five-part plan for fully funding basic education (read about it at tinyurl.com/iseminger), and plans to testify in support of Hope's bill today.
The Legislature called for formulation of such ideas last year when it approved ESHB 2261, which expanded the definition of basic education and set 2018 as the date for finally achieving full funding.
Among other changes, Iseminger's plan would set aside 50 percent of all state revenue growth for basic education until it's fully funded, reduce the reliance on local levies for school funding and reduce budget disparities between urban and rural school districts. Hope's and Hobbs' bills are based on those principles, and charge a working group of education stakeholders to vet them, identify possible alternatives, and figure out the effect they would have on taxpayers in various parts of the state.
The goal is to forge specific proposals the Legislature can pass into law. That's a big goal, but the time has long passed for kicking it further down the road. Washington isn't meeting its constitutional obligation to provide full and equal education opportunities for all its children, regardless of their income or where they live. It is shortchanging too many kids, and putting the state's economic future in competitive peril vs. much of the rest of the world.
In a session that will produce few reasons to cheer, these bills offer one. Pass them, and get to work — finally — on real and lasting solutions for giving each of our children what they need to succeed.
That shouldn't stop them, however, from laying the foundation for smarter, fuller funding of basic education. Paying for that remains, regardless of economic conditions, the state's constitutional “paramount duty.” Implementing long-term solutions for education funding is exactly what lawmakers should be doing over the next couple of years, so when revenue eventually rebounds, a blueprint will be in place for spending it wisely.
That work can and should begin this morning, when the House Education Committee hears testimony on HB 2746, sponsored by Rep. Mike Hope, R-Lake Stevens. It launches a process for coming up with concrete ways to fully and fairly fund basic education statewide.
Hope has bipartisan co-sponsorship for the bill, as does Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, who has introduced a similar bill in his chamber (SB 6740).
The proposals build on the promising work of Lake Stevens School Board member David Iseminger, who drew up a detailed, five-part plan for fully funding basic education (read about it at tinyurl.com/iseminger), and plans to testify in support of Hope's bill today.
The Legislature called for formulation of such ideas last year when it approved ESHB 2261, which expanded the definition of basic education and set 2018 as the date for finally achieving full funding.
Among other changes, Iseminger's plan would set aside 50 percent of all state revenue growth for basic education until it's fully funded, reduce the reliance on local levies for school funding and reduce budget disparities between urban and rural school districts. Hope's and Hobbs' bills are based on those principles, and charge a working group of education stakeholders to vet them, identify possible alternatives, and figure out the effect they would have on taxpayers in various parts of the state.
The goal is to forge specific proposals the Legislature can pass into law. That's a big goal, but the time has long passed for kicking it further down the road. Washington isn't meeting its constitutional obligation to provide full and equal education opportunities for all its children, regardless of their income or where they live. It is shortchanging too many kids, and putting the state's economic future in competitive peril vs. much of the rest of the world.
In a session that will produce few reasons to cheer, these bills offer one. Pass them, and get to work — finally — on real and lasting solutions for giving each of our children what they need to succeed.
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